The Truth About MySpace.com Podcast
As you read this article, there are millions of teens glued to their MySpace page.They may be changing their profile, responding to friend requests, dragging in videos from YouTube and linking their videos to others'. They may be shuffling their "Top Eight" (you're allowed eight friends to link to on your homepage, so those spots are at a premium.) They may be listening to a new band. Or they may be testing the waters on other social networking sites, such as Facebook, Xanga, Tagged, and dozens of others.
Siobhan, 16, from Northern California, uses MySpace every day. "I keep my page private- just my friends can see it. They do the same, so we never have any weirdos bothering us. We message each other a lot. We even use it to pass homework back and forth."
Her dad Mike is concerned about what she's doing online. "I use a program called RealVNC that allows me to watch what she's doing on the desktop monitor from my laptop. I don't think it's spying, because this is my daughter. I need to know she's safe."
Nathan, 13, in Paris, France, can't wait to get into MySpace. "I love American rock music, and MySpace has [it]. Next year I will be able to join...right now, my [older] friends use it. So we all go to their house and surf the rock bands on MySpace!"
Nathan's father Olivier is paying close attention. "I don't want to stop him from learning and growing, but I intend to watch very closely as he gets involved in the Internet."
Eva Francis, Ravenswood 07/12/08
I have 4 children (16, 14, and two 12 year olds). The oldest one does MySpace with his friends, and I just discovered that my 14 year old does MySpace also. My two youngest daughters want to try, but I have been successful in delaying this, for now. I really like www.imsafer.com it monitors my children's conversations with others without my intrusion. It does not give me access to their site, nor does it reveal all of the conversation. It simply monitors conversations for key words like sex, age, name, home, etc. Check it out. Without it I would not have discovered my son's MySpace site!
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